Directors to pay for abandoning stinking waste site

On Tuesday last week, Wolverhampton Crown Court ordered Kevin Allan and Randle Hawkins to complete 100 hours of unpaid work. Allan was handed a 12-month jail sentence, suspended for a year, while Hawkins was ordered to pay £1,000 in costs.

The two were directors of Dudley-based Rowanoak Waste Services Ltd. They were convicted on a series of charges in June, having abandoned their site in 2016 with 2,000 tonnes of rotting waste. According to the EA, the powerful odour and windblown debris affected neighbouring businesses. The waste was later cleared by the landowner and the agency.